A senior defence contractor has said the latest alleged Russian attempt to sever undersea cables could be preparation to knock out the United Kingdom’s internet.
Last week, a joint Nato operation intercepted Russian submarines attempting to destroy a vital undersea cable in the Arctic.
Two Western officials told Reuters that they uncovered covert Russian GUGI undersea warfare submarines trying to destroy a cable near Svalbard.
The UK, Norway and the US were involved in the exercise and managed to stop the submarines.
Verineia Codrean, Head of Strategy at EUROATLAS, has now told LBC that the operation marked a ‘significant escalation’ from Russia.
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‘NATO now appears to have evidence of what appears to be rehearsal of a capability,’ she said.
‘The challenge is if we can detect the next attempt early enough to stop it and attribute it to Russia.’
Dozens of undersea cables connect Britain to the outside world, using internet and phone lines.
Codrean added: ‘Without adequate undersea defence and surveillance, the UK leaves itself with a weakness.
‘The brazenness of this latest plot just proves the urgency of fixing that vulnerability, and building undersea defence that is persistent and not just reactive.’
Parliament’s Joint Committee of National Security Strategy found that there’s no ‘imminent’ threat to Britain’s undersea cable network, but said it was not ‘not confident that the UK could prevent such attacks or recover within an acceptable time period’ if attacked.
It comes as the government says Russian activity off the British coast has increased by 30% over the past two years.
The Ministry of Defence suspects ships such as the Yantar – which were spotted on the edge of UK waters twice this last year– are being used to map pipelines and cables.
The UK relies on subsea infrastructure for 99% of its international telecommunications data, as well as basic energy supplies like electricity, oil and gas.
According to the recent strategic defence review (SDR), the sea is becoming ‘increasingly vulnerable’, with adversaries ‘more willing to threaten the free flow of critical commodities’.
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